| The largest city of the Rocky Mountain region, and the sunniest place in British Columbia, Cranbrook is located in the Columbia Valley, offering the best of city and country. The vistas of snowcapped mountain peaks, lush green valleys and crystal clear lakes are sure to take your breath away. For those seeking an oasis of civility in the rough Rockies, there is shopping galore, boutiques and cafés, an arts centre, several heritage centres and an abundance of other attractions to entertain visitors.
Cranbrook's history is rather colourful, and filled with interesting characters. It is said, however, that the railway made this city. There is virtually no other reason for its existence, as it is neither on a major lake nor on an easily navigable river.
Prior to the entire rail goings on, the Cranbrook region was inhabited for over ten thousand years by the Ktunaxa (pronounced "Too nah hah") Native people. They followed retreating glaciers into the Cranbrook area from the great lakes to the south. As the land evolved and changed, they passed down many legends and stories. The Hoodoos, for example, are said to be the bones of Yawo'nek (pronounced "Yehwoonik"), a great water monster whose bones were thrown up onto the banks of the river. The area now called Cranbrook was called "The Pine Tree in the Centre" in the Ktunaxa language.
David Thompson, an early explorer, was the first white man to explore the Kootenay River in the early 1800s. He established trade with the Ktunaxa, who sustained themselves in the hunting, fishing and gathering lifestyle of their ancestors.
Fur traders, missionaries and prospectors soon arrived in the area, calling it "Joseph's Prairie", because the chief of the band was called Joseph. It was renamed Cranbrook by the city's founder who named it after his ancestral home of Cranbrook in Kent, England.
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